The release of State Department documents today by Republican Congressmen make clear that the State Department knew about the deteriorating and dangerous security situation before the terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi. The Administration's knowledge of the situation was so detailed, intimate, and corrobrated by similar information from the British regarding the situation at their diplomatic facilities, that it was the responsibility of the President himself to have known about the situation also. It cannot be an excuse that he was not told; it was his responsibility as chief of the executive branch of government to set up administrative protocols that would have brought such a situation, that contradicted the foreign policy and the diplomatic strategy he had established and imperiled American lives, to his attention.
Significantly, the documents make clear that the President lied repeatedly after 9/11/12 to the American people about his knowledge, lied about what actually happened in Libya, and then abetted a coverup of his lying.
Does the failure of administration, the lying, and the coverup constitute the basis for impeaching the President? The Libya affair is of much greater significance, as it involves his failure to protect American people whom he was sworn to protect, than President Clinton's Monica Lewinski affair. Further, it is more serious than President Nixon's Watergate affair. But President Obama has so far not testified under oath about the affair, so he is not, I presume, legally culpable for his lies. I suppose that this protects him, at the moment, from impeachment, but I an unclear about this issue.
But, certainly, the situation is sufficiently serious and destructive that Congressional Inquiry into the conduct of the President is warranted.
It is time for impeachment hearings.
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